Portal:Biography
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The Biography Portal
Featured biography
Angelina Jolie is an American film actress, a former fashion model, and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. After appearing as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low budget production Cyborg 2, subsequently playing her first leading role in a major film in Hackers. She appeared in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace and Gia, and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted. She achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of videogame heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and since then has established herself as one of the best known and highest paid actresses in Hollywood. She had her biggest commercial success with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children as well as a biological child. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through UNHCR. (read more...)
Selected portrait
Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. He proposed the theory of relativity and also made major contributions to the development of quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and cosmology. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905 (his "miracle year"). (read more...)
Photo credit: Oren Jack Turner, Source: Library of Congress.
Did you know...
- ... that botanist Thomas Frederic Cheeseman (pictured) had a wide range of interests: he also described a few species of marine gastropods?
- ... former Regimental Sergeant Major Harry Lapwood was known as having the loudest voice in the New Zealand House of Representatives?
- ... that in 1951, Bulgarian politician and exile G. M. Dimitrov helped found the first Bulgarian NATO company?
- ... that Edith Killgore Kirkpatrick published a short book of favorite songs titled Louisiana Let's Sing in honor of her husband Claude's unsuccessful candidacy for Governor of Louisiana in 1963?
- ... that canal engineer Hugh Henshall was both pupil of and brother-in-law to James Brindley, the famous canal architect of the Industrial Revolution?
- ... that it took Peter Steinfeld six and a half weeks to write the opening eleven pages of his first screenplay, Drowning Mona?
WikiProjects
List of projects that involve biography articles:
See also: Biographies of living persons • Manual of Style (biographies)
Quote of the week
"Blue Moon, now I'm no longer alone,
without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own."
Blue Moon, 1934
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On this day – November 29
Births
- 1832 - Louisa May Alcott, American novelist (d. 1888)
- 1898 - C. S. Lewis, Irish writer (d. 1963)
- 1932 - Jacques Chirac, President of France (pictured)
- 1954 - Joel Coen, American film director, producer, and writer
- 1955 - Howie Mandel, Canadian actor
- 1964 - Don Cheadle, American actor
Deaths
- 1643 - Claudio Monteverdi, Italian composer (b. 1567)
- 1979 - Zeppo Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1901)
- 1981 - Natalie Wood, American actress (b. 1938)
- 1986 - Cary Grant, British-born American actor (b. 1904)
- 2001 - George Harrison, British singer, guitarist and songwriter (b. 1943)
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